The Center for AI Safety (CAIS) is a research and field-building nonprofit lab on a mission to reduce societal-scale risks from AI. CAIS exists to ensure the safe development and deployment of AI. AI risk has emerged as a global priority, ranking alongside pandemics and nuclear war. Despite its importance, AI safety remains remarkably neglected, outpaced by the rapid rate of AI development. Currently, society is ill-prepared to manage the risks from AI. CAIS exists to equip policymakers, business leaders, and the broader world with the understanding and tools necessary to manage AI risk.
To achieve this, we pursue three pillars of work: research, field-building, and advocacy & policy. We are looking for a Federal Policy Lead to manage our advocacy and policy work.
The Federal Policy Lead at CAIS is a pivotal role that involves steering and managing the organization's Federal policy and advocacy work. This position requires a strategic mindset and the ability to navigate complex policy landscapes. It will require an understanding of the evolving political landscape as well as the general public’s viewpoints regarding AI risks and safety. The Federal Policy Lead will be responsible for setting and implementing the strategy for CAIS’s policy priorities and goals. For 2024-2025, this may include working on compute governance, securing funding for NIST, liability for AI companies, and so on. This may also include broader advocacy efforts.

In this role you will:

• Setting and managing the Federal advocacy and policy strategy for CAIS.
• Liaising with the CAIS Action Fund to ensure alignment on advocacy and policy priorities and related activities between the organizations.
• Demonstrating up-to-date knowledge of global and USG regulatory environments and broader policy debates impact CAIS’s mission to reduce societal scale risks from AI.
• Working with the research team and leadership team to translate CAIS’s work into actionable policy recommendations.
• Preparing members of the CAIS staff to meet with Congress, employees of federal agencies, and so forth to give technical advice on policy. This includes developing written policy materials.
• Writing policy analysis documents for particular policymakers.
• Prioritizing and responding to government RFI’s, public or inbound requests from policymakers and others.
• Organizing workshops and events, in partnership with the project management team, to bring together different stakeholders.

Preferred qualifications:

• Bachelor's degree in public policy, law, or STEM degree; Advanced degree preferred.
• Experience in a technology company, government, NGO or similar organization managing technology policy issues, including AI.
• 5+ years of experience in policy development and implementation.
• Experience working closely with technical teams and the ability to understand technical issues.
• Strong communication and collaboration skillsAbility to balance competing priorities and make sound decisions in a fast-paced environment.

Benefits include:

• Health, dental, vision insurance for you and your dependents.
• Competitive PTO401(k) plan with 4% matching.
• Free lunch and dinner at the office.
• Commuter benefits.
• Personalized ergonomic technology set-up.
• Access to some of the top talent working on technical and conceptual research in the space.

Further info

• The salary range for this role is $180,000-200,000 and is located in Washington DC or San Francisco, CA.

If you have any questions about the role, feel free to reach out to hiring@safe.ai.
The Center of AI Safety is an equal opportunity employer and all qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to race, color, religion, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, national origin, disability status, protected veteran status, or any other characteristic protected by law.Some studies have found that a higher percentage of women and underrepresented minority candidates won't apply if they don't meet every listed qualification. The Center for AI Safety values candidates of all backgrounds. If you find yourself excited by the position but you don't check every box in the description, we encourage you to apply anyway!